Sentimental Journey
by PhantoMunk
Summary: "Hey, I might run away, but that doesn't mean that I'm gone for good. I'll always come back." - Sam and Freddie embark on a journey that neither one is prepared for, but they both desperately needed.


"No, I'm really going to do it this time." Sam heard Freddie talking to Spencer as she entered the apartment. Today was the day Carly was leaving for a month, and Sam wanted to be with her up until she got on the plane. She didn't know what she would do with herself without her best friend for an entire month. However, she couldn't pass up the opportunity to tease Freddie a little bit. "Going to do what?"

"Freddie here is going to the gym, get himself pumped!" Spencer mocked, flexing his arms as he did so. Freddie stood up. "I don't want to get pumped, I just-" Freddie found he couldn't finish his sentence, as Sam started to pinch his cheeks together, making his face look like a giant fish. "Don't care." She said, skipping over to Carly's room. "I'm going to go hang out with Carly for the last time for a while." She said with a grimace. Freddie and Spencer shared a look. "What?" She asked, more annoyed than confused. "Nothing," Spencer offered, "just sad that she's going away." Sam shrugged, continuing on her way to the bedroom. "It's only for a month." As she went up the stairs, Freddie shot up from his spot on the couch. "She didn't tell Sam yet?" he asked Spencer frantically. "I guess not." Came his reply as he gazed up the stairs. "I really don't want to be here when she finds out." Freddie nodded in agreement.

* * *

Sam entered her best friends room, and it looked like she had packed away everything but the carpet. "Hey Car-lay!" She said as she plopped herself down on the bed, now bare from any sheets or comforters. "Hey!" Carly greeted, stuffing some clothes into a giant pink suitcase. "What's up?"

"Nothing, just watching you pack. That's a lot of luggage for a one month trip." Sam observed. Carly put down the jeans she was trying to fit in the overly stuffed case. This was not going to be an easy conversation.

"About that." She said, turning to face her blonde haired friend. "Remember when I said my dad wanted me to come visit him in London, on his new base?"

Sam nodded. "Yeah, why?"

"And I said I'd only be gone for a month?"

"Um, yeah, after your graduation party, you said he called and asked if you wanted to stay for a month." Sam said, wondering where this was going.

Carly took a breath. Time to rip off the band-aid. "Well, I'm going to be gone for a little more than a month."

"So what, two months? That's not so bad. I mean, mama will be bored out of her skull, but we can talk on the phone-"

"No Sam, not two months." Carly interrupted. Sam felt a shiver of anxiety chill through her heart. "Three months?"

Carly bit her lip, she had been dreading this moment. "Not quite." Sam sat up, not enjoying at all where this was heading. "Four?" Carly shook her head, refusing to look her in the eye. There was a brief period of silence. "If you say that you're going to be gone for a year..." Sam couldn't even finish her thought. Unfortunately, Carly finished it for her. "Well, it's not so much a year..." She glanced over at Sam, the look in her friends eyes making her want to bolt right out the door. "It's more like, two?" She finished, ending it in a question, not knowing how Sam was going to react. Well, she could guess, but she really didn't want to.

Sam shot off the bed. "Two years?" She exclaimed, her voice trembled as she shouted. "You're going for two years?" Carly sighed.

"At first it was just a month to visit, but then he told me about this program I could take for a degree in journalism that I can complete in two years with credits from high school! You know how much I want to be a journalist!" Carly replied fearfully.

Sam crossed across the room, not knowing how to compose herself in this moment. "Why didn't you tell me when it was for two years?"

"Well, I'll have breaks, it won't be entirely two years." Carly looked down. "Just mostly two years."

"So you were just going to leave me here alone with Fredwina, for two years?" You could almost see the steam coming from her ears.

"It won't be that bad, you can get along with Freddie." Carly started to defend their technical producer. At least he was before they filmed their last show before graduation.

"That's not the point, you should have told me!" Sam finally looked at her friend, point at her as she did so. "We're best friends, how could you not tell me before now?"

"I didn't know how to tell you." Carly said softly. "It's not like I want to go two years without seeing you, but this is the perfect opportunity for me, I can't just turn it up." Carly sat down on her bed, wiping away the small tear that started to form in the corner of her eye. Sam finally calmed down, understanding how her friend felt. She sat down next to her. "I'm sorry."

Carly sniffed. "I'm sorry too, I really should have told you before now." Sam placed her hand on top of Carly's. "I shouldn't have freaked out. Freddie and Spencer probably heard the whole thing."

"Freddie already knows, I tried using telling him as a practice for telling you this morning. It didn't go that well." She said, a little cautiously, not knowing how Sam would react to hearing that she told Freddie first. Luckily, she didn't seem to care, scoffing as she spoke. "He'll probably miss his wing-woman, I'm sure not hooking him up with any poor girls."

Carly had to laugh at that. "Hey, if it gets him off my back, I'll set him up with anybody."

"I think that ship sailed a long time ago Carls." Sam teased back. "True." Carly replied. She looked up at her. "So what are you going to do?

Sam sighed. "I don't know. Something, I guess." Sam stood up from the bed. "I'll let you finish packing, we'll hang out when you're done. Carly smiled. "Thanks Sam, I'll come get you as soon as I'm finished.

Sam walked down the stairs to find both Spencer's and Freddie's awaiting eyes, trying to figure out if they should offer sympathy or run in terror. "I'm fine guys." She said, a bit unconvincingly. They didn't want to press their luck, and didn't press the matter. Sam walked over to the door. "Hey Freddie." She called as she opened the door. Freddie craned his neck over to look at her. "Why do you want to start going to the gym?"

Freddie felt confused. "I just want to get in shape, build up some muscle. Maybe someday come close to beating you in arm wrestling." He flashed her a smirk, but she didn't give one back, opting to stare into space. "That's cool, I think you should." And with that, she walked out the door.

* * *

That was a little over two months ago. Freddie didn't see Sam after that day. He had to miss seeing Carly off at the airport, his mother having eye surgery the same day, so she wouldn't need glasses. Spencer told him later that Sam disappeared after that too, after a tearful goodbye. He talked on the phone with Carly every once in a while, but she didn't know where she was. Sam never told her. Apparently she appears at her house every now and again, but Freddie could never show up when she would be there, her mother telling him she was "out". Carly didn't press the issue with her, Sam told her that she was safe and wasn't doing anything dangerous. Carly figured it was just Sam coping, so she let it be. But that left Freddie alone for the first time in a long time.

After Carly left, Spencer applied for several art related jobs in Seattle. Not that he needed the money, but he wanted a distraction for the absence of his little sister. Eventually he found one working on a team at a modern art exhibit. He helps organize the pieces they cycle through, and he's even had some sculptures on display before they shipped them off to display in other exhibits across the country. Freddie was excited for Spencer when he heard, it was pretty big for him to have his art displayed nation wide. But Spencer spends a good deal of time working one way or another, and he hangs out with his coworkers on occasion, leaving Freddie alone with his mother.

Freddie decided, to much chagrin from his mother, that he wasn't going to college immediately after graduating. He rationalized it by expressing his desire in taking his time in figuring out which college he wanted to attend, instead of rushing to pick one before the summer, he could take a year to research and visit his schools of choice. His grades were great enough where he could afford to choose, and he eventually convinced his mother. Unfortunately, this left them more time for mother-son bonding experiences, which were starting to wear on Freddie. The only time he really had to himself was when we was exercising. He almost didn't hold through on it, after his friends both went away, but what Sam said before she left Carly's apartment months ago stuck with him, and he had to admit, he felt pretty good having stuck to it. He's not ripped by any account, but he's more toned, and it just gives him a sense of confidence he didn't have before. He just wished somebody could see it.

Freddie was walking to the gym a few blocks away from Bushwell, after finally leaving the knitting festival he could not believe existed, let alone his mother found and made him attend. He was crossing the street when he found his eye caught a glimpse of blonde in a car driving by a block away, heading the opposite direction he was. Like a lot of things these days, it reminded him of Sam, but he shook it off like he trained himself to do. Wherever she ran off to, he figured she didn't want him to know, so why beat himself up over it? He walked off he street before he was caught reminiscing in traffic. Besides, he was eager to be going to the gym, it got him out of the house, and if stayed there long enough he could come back after his mother left to cover the night shift she picked up for a friend of hers. He could stay up late, play his computer games, and even have a Peppy Cola, instead of the vegetable juice they had at the house. It was going to be a good night.

Upon arriving back at Bushwell, Freddie contemplated giving Gibby a call, to see if he wanted to hang out or something. Sure, he was a little, Gibby, but he really wanted to see a friendly face that didn't want to take his internal temperature for a medical scrap book. He almost dialed the number when he got up to his apartment and saw his lights on underneath the door.

"That's odd, mom never leaves the light on when she leaves." Freddie mumbled to himself, opening his door. He shrugged it off though, they're just lights. He decided to shower and change before doing anything else, he didn't want to spend the rest of the night in a sweaty, sleeveless shirt and his gym shorts. Tossing his bag on the couch, he walked to his bedroom.

He didn't notice right away, walking straight to his closet as soon as he entered, but something just didn't feel normal when he closed the door. He turned around, and there, at his desk, on his computer, sat Sam, almost exactly the same as when he last saw her, but her hair was longer and she was wearing athletic shorts, the tighter ones which were really un-Samlike. She turned around once she noticed he found her. "Hey Benson."

Freddie didn't know how to respond to that. She just up and vanished a few months ago, no calls, no texts, and now she was here, having broken into his home. Sam eventually got tired of his staring. "What are you looking at?"

"Um, you." Freddie responded, taken aback. "What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to talk to you." Came her reply, sounding as if it were the most obvious thing on the planet. Freddie didn't appreciate her tone.

"I've wanted to talk to you for two months. Where were you? Why didn't you respond to my calls or texts?" Freddie asked. This had better be good. Sam sighed and looked back to the computer.

"I was a little bit of everywhere." She began. "I didn't know what to do once Carly left."

"So you ran away?" Freddie asked skeptically.

"I didn't run away, not really." She stood up from the chair, and Freddie noticed something different about her he couldn't put his finger on. "After she left, I decided to run. I didn't know where, but I just ran. Eventually I made it out of Seattle before I turned back. It was actually kind of calming, so I just kept running. I camped out in some parks a few nights, I came back home when I needed more food or clean clothes." She paused, sitting back down in his chair, not really looking at him.

"So, technically, you did run away." Freddie said with a smirk, trying to break the tension in the room. "Yeah, I guess." She responded. He realized that must be what's different about her, while she was by no means an unattractive girl, she lost a little bit of the curves on the waist that must have been brought on by eating ham in excess. There was nothing wrong with how she looked before of course, but Freddie couldn't help but notice that her legs looked amazing, and he almost made a similar observation with her chest before he mentally kicked himself. She was his friend, and even though he was still a hormonal teenager, he wasn't about to ogle her no matter how good the running was good to her. His thoughts actually made him disappointed in himself, but he chalked it up to him not seeing her for a long time, not to mention the ladies at the gym were stuck in his head. He mentally shook his head, thankful that nobody could hear his thoughts. The last thing he wanted right now was for Sam to tease him about the girls he was was too nervous to talk to.

Suddenly, Freddie realized that there was an awkward silence in the room. Sam seemed to be staring right though him, apparently lost in thought. He decided that now would be just as good a time to take off his gym socks than any. Finally, Sam spoke as he threw his socks in his hamper. "Looks like the gym is paying off for you." He looked over at her, but she still wasn't looking at him. "I was thinking the same about you actually." That comment earned him a glare. "Don't go there Fredweird." She warned. Freddie just shrugged. "It'd be a cold day in hell before I'd want to. You do look nice though." He added as an afterthought. He didn't want to insult her. She didn't seem to mind either comment, and turned her gaze to his carpet. Finally, Freddie spoke up. "So why do you want to talk to me?"

That seemed to get her attention. She took a breath. "Look, I'm not planning on going to school anytime soon, and I don't really want to hang around here without Carly." She paused for a second, grasping her hands together. "So, I decided that I want to leave."

"Where are you going?" Freddie asked, taken aback by what she had just said.

"I don't know, anywhere really. I just want to pick a direction and go." Sam pointed off in front of her. Freddie followed her gesture briefly. "So what do you want with me?" Bam, more tension, just hanging around like a thick fog.

"I wanted to say goodbye." Sam said. "I didn't want to just leave you without telling you what I was doing, specially if I can't even tell you where I'm going. I just want something new."

Freddie thought about this for a moment. He completely understood what she meant. School was done, iCarly was done, even Carly was gone. What was left here for them? It's just as good a time as any to start a new chapter in their lives. "Well I don't want to say goodbye."

Now it was Sam's turn to be surprised. She knew that she took pleasure at his expense quite frequently, but she still thought that they were friends. "Alright." She got up to leave. "I guess I'll just go."

"Nope, not yet." Freddie pushed the door closed before she could leave, earning a questioning stare from her. "I want to go with you."

Apparently it was still Sam's turn to be surprised. She didn't quite know what to think. "Why?"

"Because, I want something new too. Besides, how are you going to afford leaving home for who knows how long?" Freddie asked.

"I'm perfectly capable of sleeping outside, I just need food." Sam replied, not fooling Freddie. "You're broke, aren't you?" Sam looked at the wall. "No, not really. I just don't have a whole lot. But I'm still going."

Freddie walked over to his desk. "I've got money, I can pay for the trip. You'll need money for gas anyways."

Sam looked back at him. "Really, you have enough money to support both of us? I don't even know how much this would need!" Freddie pulled a paper out of his desk drawer. "Here, this is my bank statement. See for yourself." He handed the paper to her, her eyes widening a little in surprise. "Wow." She gave him back the paper. "How did you get all this?"

"I saved up, put away my allowance, the money we occasionally made form iCarly, various summer jobs, and my dad sends money every month. I didn't really want him to, but my mom won't let me send it back, so I put it away. So trust me, I can pay for this. For both of us."

Sam looked at him, then back to the floor. She sighed. "Freddie, no. We can't."

He looked at her with a confused look on his face."Why not? I can take care of all of it." She unfolded her arms and walked across the room. "That's just it, I can't take all that money from you." With a slight huff, she plopped down into his desk chair.

"You take my money all the time." Freddie sat down on the edge of his bed.

"That's different." She replied, meeting his eyes for the first time since she came into his apartment. "That's a small amount, for food and movies and whatnot. This would be not just food, but three meals a day, hotels, motels, gas, who knows what else? For both of us." She blinked as she looked back to his bedroom wall. "It's way too much to ask."

Freddie got up and leaned against the wall she had her eyes set on, forcing her to either look away or meet his gaze. "Sam, I know you took it hard when Carly left, but I took it hard too." He looks over to see she's looking right at him. "I took it even worse when you just disappeared. Frankly, it sucked, I had no one to talk to but my mother." Sam smirked, bringing a grin to his face as well. "The point I'm trying to make is, I missed you, and if I can go with you, I want to. I don't care what the cost." The room was silent for a while once Freddie was done speaking. Feeling a little bit awkward, he shifted his gaze to the window and waited for her to say something.

Sam pondered what he had said, she didn't really know what to think about it. It's not like she really wanted to go alone, she just didn't want Freddie to burn all of his money, and his time on her. She wasn't sure she was worth it. But here he is, telling her that that's exactly what he wants to do.

"Alright." She said it so soft he wouldn't have heard her if it didn't cut the tension in the room like a knife. "We'll both go." Freddie looked back to her and flashed her his trademark grin. She almost smiled back before pointing up at him. "Don't think I couldn't do this without you!" She said pointedly. "Oh, of course not." He ran his hand through his hair. "I just don't think I can stand you running away again." Sam just about retorted, but she couldn't find a comeback. He wasn't taking a jab at her, he was being sincere. She sighed. "Hey, I might run away, but that doesn't mean that I'm gone for good. I'll always come back."

Suddenly the awkward was back in the room. Freddie wasn't used to seeing a vulnerable side to Sam. Luckily, Sam wasn't about to let the feeling stay. "We're taking my car though. If you're paying, I'll feel better if it was my car if it gets wrecked or stolen." He tilted his head like a confused puppy. "I thought I was driving?" Sam gave a cheesy grin. "You still are, I don't want to drive that thing." Freddie chuckled. "Ah. So when do we leave?"

"Whenever you're ready. My stuff is already packed and ready to go in my car."

Freddie remembered something. "That was you I saw on my way to the gym." Sam shrugged. "Yeah, I almost didn't wait for you, but I figured since Crazy wasn't here, you'd have to be back sometime." Freddie chuckled. "My mom is working a night shift tonight, she won't be back until around ten tomorrow morning."

Sam nodded, getting up from his chair. "Hey, if she's not coming back tonight, can I sleep here while you pack? I haven't slept anywhere comfortable for a week or two." Freddie smiled. "Sure, you can nap on the couch. I'll wake you up when I'm done packing."

Sam moved over to his bed. "Thanks." She half whispered as she plopped her head on his pillow. "Are you sure you want to do this?" Freddie walked over to his door. "Positive. I'll go clear off the couch." He heard a mumble in reply as he stepped into the hallway. He grabbed his gym bag off the couch, leaving it in the living room where his mom could see it. He didn't have time to wash his gym clothes, and he figured she wouldn't want to have his sweaty garments stinking up his otherwise clean room.

Freddie then realized that he'd be leaving his mother by herself. He did know that he would be, but he hadn't considered the ramifications of it until just now. Figuring that a note would be the least he could do while still being able to get enough distance between him and here before she found out, he found a pen and some paper.

_Mom, _

_Sam came over today. We had a deep conversation, and decided that we're going on a road trip, starting as soon as I finish packing. I know it's short notice, but with Carly gone, I think it's a distraction that we both really need. Please don't be upset with my absence, I'll be back, and I'll have my phone with me at all times. I just really need, and really want to do this. I'm using the money that Dad has been sending over the years, and I'm leaving my car, we're taking Sam's. We'll talk after you read this note. I love you. _

_Love, Freddie_

Feeling content with it, he left it on the counter where she would see it and went back to his room. "Hey Sam, the couch is-" Upon reaching his room, he found Sam fast asleep on his bed, passed out like she hadn't slept in weeks. It's entirely possible that she hadn't. So he decided to let her sleep, he could pack around her, and he'd grab a nap before they set out in the morning.

* * *

Sam woke up to the sun coming out from Freddie's bedroom window. After some inspection, she found herself tangled up in his comforter on top of his bed. She would feel guilty for stealing his bed, if it hadn't been the best night of sleep she'd had since Carly left. Rubbing her eyes, she walked out to the living room to find Freddie hanging off the couch, drool forming a puddle on the carpet. So she sat on him. Needless to say, he woke with a start.

"Morning Frednard." Sam said from atop him. "G'morning." He mumbled back. "What time is it?"

Sam checked her phone. "About 5:30. Are you ready to go?" Freddie sat up and rubbed the sleep out of his own eyes. "Yeah, I just need to bring my stuff down." Sam walked over to his luggage. "And breakfast." She added. "Yes, and breakfast." He replied.

Twenty minutes and a few waffles later, they found themselves down at Sam's car. It was an old, purple, Grandma style car that she had adopted from her mother. The backseat and trunk were huge, and Sam had taken the liberty of installing a new stereo, so she could have CD's and listen to her pearpod. It still had the hand crank windows though, but it wasn't a bad car at all. Sam got into the passenger seat as Freddie made his way to the drivers side, having packed his things in the trunk.

"Hey Freddie?" Sam asked as he got in the car. "Yeah?" He responded. Sam looked down at her feet. "Thanks." Freddie looked over at her. "For what?" Sam looked up out the windshield. "Just thanks."

Freddie smirked and shrugged. "So, where do you want to go?"

Sam pointed directly in front of them. "This way seems good to me." Freddie shifted into drive. "Alright, off we go."


End file.
